Dragon’s Lair’s Picks: Hot Comics of the Week (December 17, 2013)

It’s that time of the week again – New Comic Day approach-eth. Here are the top, hot comic book picks for the week of December 17. As always, picks are provided by our friend’s at Dragon’s Lair Comics and Games with commentary by yours truly.

Full disclosure: I have not read these issues before posting the list. In fact, I have not read many of these titles in years. I can still have an opinion about them, though. It’s a free country (last I checked).

Picks for this week:

Uncanny Avengers #15

Holy cow, Cap looks like he’s been through the red, white, and blue wringer here. I have no idea who those people are reflected in his shield, so I’m going to call them The Kang with the Bad Eyebrows Guy and The Girl Who looks like that one mutant from the 90s X-Men series.

Whoever they are, they look like the gave ol’ Cappy the what for. Hope the rest of the Avengers show up soon.

Itty Bitty Hellboy #5

Awww… ain’t he cute? You might remember I featured this title on my Halloween ComicFest post. If not, it’s too late. They’re probably all gone by now.

Anyway, even though kid versions of superheroes are kind of getting run into the ground right now (but not as much as Cap on the cover of Uncanny Avengers #15 – amirite?) this one is actually kind of cute… what with all the kiddie versions of Cthuluesque nightmare creatures and all.

Sledgehammer 44: Lightning War #2

Are we really following a kiddie version of a Mike Mignola title with an actual Mike Mignola title? Well, I guess we just did.

This is #2 of a 3-issue miniseries. Miniseries, by the way, are the best friend of a casual comics fan – a great way to get into writer or artist without having to try and jump into the middle of an ongoing series.

From this description, you should know if this is the title for you:

“The iron soldier known as Sledgehammer is the only one who can lead a rescue mission of a kidnapped American about to spill top-secret information on the Flying Wing warplane to the Nazis and their own supersoldier-the Black Flame!”

What is it with Mignola and Nazis, anyway? Must’ve watched a lot of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” as a kid.

Wonder Woman #26

The description leaves me (almost) speechless:

“Wonder Woman’s brother and sister are being held hostage by none other than Cassandra, the sadistic sibling she hasn’t even met yet!
And speaking of hostages, we’re taking bets on how long chains can hold the First Born! ”

Man, two sentences and two exclamation points? EXCITEMENT!

So not only does Wonder Woman have way more family than I ever knew, she apparently has even more family than SHE knew, too.

And who is the parent of the First Born? Is it also Wonder Woman? This looks like it might start rivaling Vision and the Scarlet Witch for gnarled family trees.

Harley Quinn #1

The guys at Dragon’s Lair had Harley Quinn #0 on the pick list when it came out. I’ll admit, I was skeptical. I’ve never been in love with the character. I always felt like she was just eye candy for the fanboys.

Issue #0 actually started to win me over, though. There was a lot of the fourth-wall breaking quirkiness Deadpool is now known for. It went so over the top though, that it reminded me of an older title – Ambush Bug.

If Harley Quinn is going to be the DC version of Ambush Bug, deconstructing the DC Universe and sticking a pin in the comics industry, count me in. At least for a while.

I’m interested enough about whether and how far issue #1 presses the absurdity, I’m making this on my Casual Comics Guy Pick of the Week! With extra exclamation points for DC’s copy editors! Who describes this issue as follows:

“Harley is set to begin her new life, but she needs a job first! Enter the Coney Island Roller Derby!

It’s game time as Harley sets out to destroy her competition – literally!”

Is the second sentence an aside or an imperative? Did they need to add “literally”? Did the copy editor have too many Red Bulls before writing the descriptions this week?

The answers are Who Knows, No, and YES!!!!!!!

I imagine him (or her) bouncing around the offices like Buddy the Elf after ingesting a whole jug of maple syrup.

Anyway, thanks again to Craig, CJ, and the whole Dragon’s Lair crew. Support your Local Comic Book Shop!